Editing Dahomey (section)

===United States===
During the [[American Revolutionary War|American Revolution]], the rebelling [[United Colonies]] prohibited the international slave trade for a variety of economic, political, and moral reasons depending on the colony.<ref name="NPL">{{cite web |author=Finkelman, Paul |date=2007 |title=The Abolition of The Slave Trade |url=http://abolition.nypl.org/print/us_constitution/ |access-date=June 25, 2014 |publisher=New York Public Library}}</ref> Following the end of the revolution, U.S. President [[Thomas Jefferson]] signed the [[Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves]] in 1807, which federally outlawed the international slave trade, though domestic slavery itself would persist until the [[American Civil War]]. Thus, the [[United States]] never established any formal diplomatic relations with the Kingdom of Dahomey. The last known [[slave ship]] that sailed to the [[United States]] secretly and illegally imported 110 slaves from Dahomey, purchased long after the abolition of the slave trade. The story was mentioned in the newspaper ''The Tarboro Southerner'' on July 14, 1860. Five days earlier, a schooner called ''[[Clotilda (slave ship)|Clotilda]]'', captained by William Foster, arrived in the bay of [[Mobile, Alabama]] carrying the last known shipment of slaves to the U.S. In 1858, an American man named [[Timothy Meaher]] made a wager with acquaintances that despite the law banning the slave trade, he could safely bring a load of slaves from Africa. He built the ''Clotilda'' slave ship and sent William Foster to captain it and retrieve enslaved Africans.

Captain William Foster arrived in [[Ouidah]], a coastal port of Dahomey, and retrieved 110 slaves. Describing how he came in possession of the slaves, he wrote in his journal in 1860,

{{blockquote|text=From thence I went to see the King of Dahomey. Having agreeably transacted affairs with the Prince we went to the warehouse where they had in confinement four thousand captives in a state of nudity from which they gave me liberty to select one hundred and twenty-five as mine offering to brand them for me, from which I preemptorily [sic] forbid; commenced taking on cargo of negroes, successfully securing on board one hundred and ten.}}

[[Zora Neale Hurston]] wrote about her interviews with [[Oluale Kossola]], who was thought to be the last survivor of the ''Clotilda'', in her book ''[[Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"|Barracoon]]''.<ref name="Barracoon">{{Cite book |last=Hurston |first=Zora Neal |title=Barracoon- The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" |publisher=Amistad; HarperCollins Publishers |year=2018 |isbn=9780062748218}}</ref> Later, it was found that [[Matilda McCrear]] was the last living survivor of that atrocity.   A notable descendant of a slave from this ship is [[Ahmir Khalib Thompson]], an American music artist known as Questlove. Mr. Thompson's story is depicted in the PBS Television show ''[[Finding Your Roots]]'' [Season 4, Episode 9].<ref>{{cite web |title=Season 4 Episode Guide {{!}} About {{!}} Finding Your Roots |url=http://www.pbs.org/weta/finding-your-roots/about/season-4-episode-guide/ |access-date=February 27, 2018 |website=pbs.org |publisher=Public Broadcasting Service}}</ref>